Although conventional cotton prices have reached record levels this year, area organic producers hope to plant seeds of change among conventional farmers to meet its largest order of organic cotton.
Anvil Knitwear, a 130-year-old sportswear apparel brand, made a commitment in October with the Lubbock-based Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative to double the production of organic cotton in the U.S. That means Anvil Knitwear, the largest consumer of U.S. organic cotton, will pay a premium for all the production from the increased acreage and will encourage other producers to switch to organic cotton. The New York-based company will also purchase any of the cotton making the transition into organic production at a price close to the price of organic cotton.
“It has been such a roller-coaster ride with (organic cotton) markets appearing and disappearing,” said Darlene Vogler, who produces organic cotton with her husband and son in Lamesa. “It’s exciting where we are today with such a strong commitment from Anvil, so the markets are looking a lot rosier.”
Five years ago, Anvil Knitwear introduced an organic apparel line as a part of its sustainability initiative, said Caterina Conti, executive vice president. It uses transitional cotton, leftover textile clippings and recycled plastic bottles in its eco-friendly apparel as well, but she said the company wanted to do more to expand its sustainable apparel and boost supply.
“There’s not enough organic cotton to feed the need, the demand,” Conti said.
Anvil Knitwear invited its customer, Disney Stores LLC, into the partnership, she said, because Disney launched a new store design and opted to make all of its graphic T-shirts with 100 percent certified organic cotton.
Like Anvil Knitwear’s organic products, Disney’s graphic T-shirts will show complete traceability from farm to retailer through Trackmytee.com.
The shirt tags will have the web address and the code number needed for the website.
But the current number of organic producers in the South Plains do not have the ability to increase acreage to meet that goal; conventional producers need to convert, said Jimmy Wedel, Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative president.
“Historically, when we tried to increase acreage, it was a little different,” he said. “Now, we’re able to tell a producer, if you grow it, we’ll buy it. We’ll have a buyer for it.”
Wedel and other producers in the cooperative are trying to spread the word, but it has been difficult to grab other producers’ attention in a year of good conventional prices. It may take two or three years to double production, he said, but Anvil Knitwear made its commitment without a set time limit.
For Wedel, doubling his cotton acreage to about 450 acres next year will not be a problem because he planted less cotton in previous years. Vogler said there is some room for increased acreage in her family’s operation, but not a lot. So she is encouraging farmers with small plots of transitional cotton to keep going.
A lot of producers with just a few hundred acres of organic cotton would help reach the demand, Wedel said, specifically High Plains producers.
He said the 200-mile radius around Lubbock is the ideal region for organic cotton production because of the climate, low insect pressure and his confidence in the Texas Department of Agriculture organic certification.
Still, he knew it would not be an easy switch to compost and manual weeding when producers are used to herbicides, fertilizer, pesticides and biotechnology seeds.
Wedel and the Voglers have been in organic production for about 18 years and understand this different method of farming is not for everyone.
While organic production brings increased management and detailed record keeping, Wedel said the untreated cottonseed is less expensive, organic prices are higher than conventional prices, chemicals are not put into the environment and the demand is growing. There are markets for organic cottonseed and transitional cotton.
Vogler said she is “cautiously optimistic” on whether the industry can meet Anvil Knitwear’s commitment, but the timing of the high conventional prices will be a challenge.